Emma Rhodes

Emma Rhodes was called to the Bar in 2002 and focused her practice on youth criminal justice in 2008. Emma has been involved in a variety of activities to promote education and awareness of youth criminal justice issues, including sitting on numerous panels for Legal Aid Ontario, the Ontario Court of Justice, the Law Society of Ontario, the Ministry of the Attorney General, and the Ontario Bar Association. In 2014, Emma testified before the Senate of Canada’s Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights about the overrepresentation of visible minority youth in the criminal justice system. Emma has since expanded her practice to assist children and youth caught in family law proceedings. She is a panel lawyer for the Office of the Children’s Lawyer for child protection, custody and access, minor parents, Voluntary Youth Service Agreements (VYSA), and secure treatment hearings.

Emma is also on the executive board of the Ontario Bar Association’s Child and Youth Law Section, and she sits on Legal Aid Ontario’s Criminal Law Advisory Committee and Criminal Law Youth Panel Standards Advisory Committee. Emma was an Instructor at Osgoode Hall Law School where she taught Trial Advocacy from 2010 to 2016, and she was an adjunct professor at University of Toronto from 2012 to 2014 for a course on Youth Criminal Justice. She is the Criminal Lawyers’ Association’s representative for youth criminal justice issues for all of Ontario.

Emma was selected to be part of the Ministry of Attorney General’s Independent Legal Advice for Sexual Assault Survivors Pilot Program. Emma is a contributing editor for Wilson on Children and the Law (LexisNexis) and for Halsbury’s Laws of Canada (LexisNexis). She was the recipient of the Toronto Lawyers Association’s Honsberger Award in 2019.